The twinning of the Global East: Notes from South Korea-Vietnam sister cities

The present paper investigates city-to-city linkages and the role of urban networks in socio-economic development of cities This paper addresses the relationships of 'Eurocities' with their 'Sister Cities' to highlight the contributions of the mutual relationship to trade, tourism, cultural activities and investment. How do the networks of cities increase the interaction between cities and contribute to their socio-economic development? In order to answer this question, the present study evaluates the Sister city experiences of 29 Eurocities from 16 European countries. The results of our study show that the contributions of Sister city relations depend on former relations, quality and quantity of current joint activities, reciprocal visits and benchmarking. The results of our study also show that after signing the Sister city agreements, the number of visitors, students, cultural activities and economic cooperation with entrepreneurs have increased in 50% of both Eurocities and their Sister cities. In the surveyed cities, especially the increase in the number of visitors (59%) and students (52%) is remarkable and it seems by creating an interest about their cultures, cities pull tourists from their Sister cities. Sister city relationship has had also a positive impact on the number of investments in both the cities. However, the most important contribution of Sister city relationship is the increasing number of tourism and cultural activities, joint projects and benchmarking, therefore, the increasing cultural dialogue and common values which will make a great contribution to the construction of global urban culture.

Sister cities were initially intended to create post-war friendships and cultural linkages. During this period, sister city relationships were mostly formed based on similarities such as names, cultural or historical links. In the 1970s, there was an increase in mutual understanding aimed at sister city relations, as well as a shift in the pattern of friendly relations. Relations are based on the availability of mutually beneficial advantages for a wide range of goals, including trade, investment, economy, tourism, health, and the environment. Issues of trade, economy, and development, which have recently become increasingly essential for cities, have begun to be debated in the context of sister city connections. As a result, municipal cooperation decisions in sister city connections have become increasingly crucial. Especially in the choice of partnership, political or emotional decisions prevent effective cooperation. The purpose of the study is to determine the pattern of municipal sister city relationships in Turkey. This study examined 2051 sister city relationships between 486 municipalities in Turkey at the international level, as well as the effects of population size and geographical distance on the selection of a sister city. According to the study’s findings, geographic proximity and situations requiring the exchange of information and experience appear to be determining factors in city pairings with different population sizes. Cross-border cooperation, which refers to cities that are geographically close to one another by land or sea, is uncommon in Turkey; however, sister city relations are generally strengthened with cities in geographically close countries, especially due to historical and cultural factors. This study’s findings could apply to future research examining the mutual benefits of sister city relationships between cities. Keywords: City diplomacy, Sister city, City-to-city pairings, Population size, Geographical distance.

Evolving connections: Understanding the dynamics behind the Sino-foreign sister city network

The present paper investigates the role of urban networks in interaction and integration of cities by means of the “sister city” movement. The paper addresses the relationships of “Eurocities” with their “sister cities” to highlight the main factors behind the successful relationships. The data and information used for evaluation are based on the extensive survey questionnaires filled out by relevant departments or experts of municipalities in Eurocities. A logistic regression method is deployed to identify the most important factors in the success of sister city relationships. The results of our study show that the existence of any former relation with the sister cities affects the success of the relationship positively. This former relation makes it easier to have a future relation with an economic partnership while shortening the process and accelerating the economic partnership. The results also show that two factors, viz. similarities in urban problems and contributions of Eurocities to their sister cities stimulate the willingness of Eurocities to improve the relationship. The contributions as well as economic benefits provided from the sister city relationship and new business and investment opportunities have emerged as the most important factors in sister city relationship.

International relations is a study that discusses the relationship between actors in the international world. In its development, international relations are no longer dominated by the state as the main actor. International relations developed and expanded so that other actors, such as sub-national actors, emerged. Sub-national actors can include local or regional governments, one of which is the city government. Sister city is one form of international relations carried out by City Government actors. This paper will explain the concept and practice of sister city in International Relations. The concepts/theories used are International Relations and Sister city. While the research method used is descriptive qualitative by using the result of interviews, books, journals, websites and others as a reference. Conceptually, a sister city is a cooperative relationship carried out by two or more City Governments based on their similarities. However, in the practice, based on case studies, the reasons for sister city relationships are not always based on similarities. The practice of sister city relations has been carried out by many cities in the world in various fields. Sister cities also tend to be intertwined for a long time, but not a few have not been implemented effectively or even not running at all.

We investigate how intergovernmental ties at subnational levels between home and host countries influence the intensity and location of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. We focus on an intriguing type of subnational tie, namely, International Friendship (Sister) Cities. A sister city is a decentralized form of intergovernmental relationship that provides a platform by which a multinational corporation (MNC) can approach a local government, customers, and clients to acquire localized information and political capabilities. We argue that cities with a sister-city relationship attract more FDIs than other similar cities within a host country. The benefit extends to the national level as MNCs have higher FDI levels in host countries with a greater number of sister cities with their home country. We further investigate whether the effect of sister cities on an MNC’s country selection is greater when host-country subnational governments have a higher degree of autonomy relative to the national government, and lesser when governments have a higher level of policy uncertainty. Using data from the 1990–2009 period, we find consistent support for our ideas as tested at two levels of analysis: a city-level matched sample analysis on Japanese FDI inflows, and a country-level analysis on Japanese MNCs’ country selection.

Sister cities are a prevalent form of subnational intergovernmental relationships. Such relationships can play an important role in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). However, we know little about whether and how these relationships influence the localized impacts of FDI in host countries, which is pivotal in achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. By integrating the literature on FDI spillover and sister cities, our study proposes that the higher the FDI percentage received by a city from its sister city, the greater the number of patents applied for by firms in that city. Our sample consists of 7273 inward FDI projects into China from 1558 cities in 77 countries between 2003 and 2008. The analysis results support our assumption. We also find that this positive effect is stronger when FDI projects are from recently established sister cities, when the asymmetry in the global economic networks of the two sister cities is smaller, and when regional marketization in host-country is higher.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The article title should read as “Are ‘Sister Cities’ from ‘Sister Provinces’? An Exploratory Study of Sister City Relations (SCRs) in China”.

On first glance, this seems to be a book about a relatively narrow topic—United States–El Salvador sister city relationships. However, it addresses a host of bigger issues, including theories of human rights, histories of imperialism, and the nature and impact of social movement activism.Sister city relationships began, as Molly Todd explains, as apolitical ways for people in the United States to learn about and get to know communities in other parts of the world. They were often based on similarities in history and geography and driven by the interests of economic and political elites (p. 180). In the 1980s, Central American solidarity activists transformed this model into a unique and, in Todd's telling, highly effective form of activism. This “grassroots sistering” educated US residents about the conflicts that caused suffering in places like El Salvador and Nicaragua and the US government's role in these conflicts; provided direct humanitarian aid to impoverished, war-torn villages; and created opportunities for both US residents and Salvadorans to advocate for policy changes (p. 7). These practices created “an entirely new model of transnational activism” (p. 8).This activism is grounded in the personal relationships that sistering creates between relatively powerful and privileged people in the United States, on the one hand, and vulnerable communities in El Salvador, on the other. These relationships were created, most powerfully, by visits of US residents to their sister cities, where they saw firsthand the hardships that Salvadorans experienced and also learned about their efforts to create new forms of social organization. In addition, many sister city organizations sponsored visits of Salvadoran activists to the United States, where they offered personal accounts of both their suffering and their dreams for a better world.Most United States–El Salvador sister city relationships were between relatively progressive US cities, such as Berkeley, Madison, or Cambridge, and Salvadoran villages in war zones, usually in areas controlled by guerrillas of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The highly politicized nature of life in the FMLN zones of control contributed to a multilayered approach to solidarity work, as sistering activists explain. One layer of such work was purely humanitarian, while another layer was more explicitly political (p. 54). The political dimensions included both opposition to US aid to the Salvadoran regime and support for the work of Salvadorans seeking to build alternative forms of governance and to transform their own society.Todd shows how sistering activists combined concern about traditional human rights issues such as political killings and arrests with the newer concept of solidarity, which emphasizes support for the collective struggle of Central Americans to build a society according to their own vision, without US intervention. The personal relationships created by the sister city model gave solidarity a firm foundation, humanizing the very people whom both US and Salvadoran governments presented as “subversives.”These relationships lasted even after the end of El Salvador's civil war (1981–92), and some of the most interesting aspects of the book are the latter chapters in which Todd details the ways that people in the former FMLN zones of control continued pursuing their political goals in the postwar context. She details efforts to address gang violence, migration, and environmental destruction, as well as the ongoing struggle to hold the government accountable to the reforms laid out by the negotiations that ended the war.Long Journey to Justice is well written, well organized, and easy to read. It makes good use of a wide range of archival material, including many from informal archives—such as boxes of pamphlets and letters in activists' attics. The author's personal notes, such as her own history of activism and her interactions with both Salvadoran and US interlocutors, are interwoven skillfully and enhance the primary focus on archival and other historical documents. While she clearly admires the sister city movement and the Salvadoran and US activists who made it possible, she is careful to analyze tensions, shortcomings, and failures, thus presenting a well-balanced account that does not romanticize its subject. In sum, this is a book that should be of interest to scholars of US and Central American history and politics, to teachers and students in a variety of fields, and to general readers interested in Central American solidarity and related social movements.

Between 2017 and 2020, Bandung, Indonesia, and Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, worked together as part of a sister city collaboration in the environmental sector. Bandung and Kawasaki are sister cities, and their governments have cooperated to address Bandung’s waste management and environmental issues as part of this sister-city collaboration. This study employed an interview and a literature review alongside a descriptive qualitative method to get to the bottom of the research topic. This study also applied the theories of “sister cities” and “city diplomacy” in assessing the findings. The study’s findings revealed that the collaboration helped strengthen Bandung’s human resources and enhance the city’s ability to manage and deal with waste issues. This study also discovered that the partnership ran into problems with finances, the Covid-19 pandemic, the communication process, and the priority given to training initiatives over infrastructure.

The concept of interaction, which has found more space in international relations with globalization, has also expanded the field of action of local governments. Sister city relations are among the international collaborations of local governments representing cities, regions and states. Managers of Washington-Hyogo, California-Osaka and Hawaii-Hiroshima sister cities in the USA and Japan and managers various regional non-governmental organizations made some recommendations at the end of the three-day conference process where lessons learned and best practices on planning, preparation and response to natural disasters were shared. Taking these recommendations into consideration, sister city relations were considered as a disaster management model in the context of local governments at national level. In the model, city pairings were made by taking into consideration factors such as fault line, population, cities not being close to each other, geographical location, etc. The main purpose of these pairings is to prevent managerial uncertainty and other weaknesses that may arise in the event of a possible disaster and to take action quickly. With the sister city disaster management model, it is thought that sharing the knowledge and experiences of sister cities regarding past disasters among themselves will provide significant contributions to the cities.

The tradition of sister cities, rooted in Medieval Europe in the 1830s, saw a resurgence after World War II. It gained momentum in the 1950s and 1960s, spreading from Western Europe to the United States and beyond. In the Philippines, the Sister City or Town-Twinning Program started in 1982 to allow local government units to establish relationships or social agreements with their counterparts within the country or abroad. In the Cagayan Valley Region, Cauayan City in Isabela has the highest number of sister cities, both local and international, highlighting its relevance as a case in point to enhance understanding of the program and contribute to the ongoing comprehensive policy amendments. The city has nine (9) sister cities locally, four (4) within Region 2, and four (4) sister cities internationally. This study used document analysis, interviews, and participant observation to discuss the processes and outcomes of sister-city partnerships in Cauayan City. Findings revealed that adherence to guidelines on implementing sister-city partnerships in Cauayan City encounters several challenges, including the lack of an established contact point and monitoring system. The partnership often seems to be anchored on a big sister-little sister arrangement. The partnerships are currently at an early stage, primarily focusing on benchmarking, and there is a need for greater clarity regarding their nature and objectives. The paper argues that there is a need to amend the existing 1997 guidelines on sister-city programs to improve monitoring and feedback mechanisms and impose greater awareness among government officials on the potential of the sister-city agreements to maximize the benefits derived from such partnerships.

Summary In an era of escalating urbanisation and global migration, this research investigates the potential of sister city relationships in forging long-term and community-driven international ties. Are these city-to-city agreements outdated, or do they still offer contemporary benefits? The study is grounded in eight months of field research on relationships between US cities and the Ecuadorian cities of Cuenca and Quito during Ecuador’s 2024 state of emergency. A sequential mixed-methods approach includes semi-structured interviews with cultural, diplomatic and economic stakeholders, and quantitative survey data, to identify broader trends in perceptions of sister city relations. Ethnographic observations in municipal offices in Cuenca and Quito anchor the research in practical governance challenges. The study contributes to international relations and paradiplomacy discourse by proposing an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that blends ideas of social power, kinship and peripheral realism to analyse sister city partnerships as tools of agency and identity in the context of global diplomacy and displacement.

The U.S.-Mexico Border Region is one of the most dynamic in the world. Population projections are that by 2020 some 24 million people will live in the area. The majority live in or near the 14 sister cities which face each other along a 2,000 mile border and share social, economic, environmental and health interests. The rapid growth of the border region over the past several decades has significantly outpaced the development of infrastructure to meet residents’ needs. What were social and cultural differences have become persistent social inequalities. The public health of one sister city affects the others. Poverty is prevalent, accompanied by infectious and environmentally-created diseases due to absent sewage treatment, toxic waste and poor air and water quality. Congenital anomalies persist in some counties. Recently the border area has experienced gang-related drug and gun violence, and diverted resources to public safety. The environmental and public health challenges in this region are great. The Border XXI Program of 1996 and the Healthy Border 2012/2020 Program commits the governments of Mexico and the U.S., and non-government stakeholders at all levels, to assist in border transformations. U.S. and Mexican border communities have collaborated on joint health improvements to reduce inequalities for many decades. Some of these programs have been limited to a single pair of sister cities, while others have been statewide or border-wide programs. Evaluations of the short and long-term effects or outcomes of these programs have not always been a high priority; the criteria for successful programs and their sustainability have not been widely studied or replicated, and uncertainties in economic and leadership resources have prevented the gathering of uniform, continuous data that are useful on both sides of the border.

Sister city type relationships at local government level form an important part of Australian-Japanese relations. The original concept of sister cities was to increase international understanding and peace at local level. Over the years, that concept has changed and there is now a robust debate over the inclusion of commercial exchanges into sister city type relationships. This article describes the context of this debate by analysing the different perceptions of sister city type relationships in Australia and Japan. It begins with a discussion of the public policy contexts of sister cities in both Australia and Japan. The second section deals with an analysis of the results of surveys in Australia and Japan. Finally, case studies of two important issues related to SCTRs are discussed: economic and business relations and community involvement. The article concludes by suggesting that sister city type relationships between Australia and Japan are dependent upon the over-arching public policy contexts and sometimes lead to mismatched expectations between the two countries.